With a fire roaring just a short drive from the Rose Bowl, it has become a real possibility that UCLA’s season-opening matchup with San Diego State on Saturday might have to be rescheduled or moved.

UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero has been constantly updating his San Diego State counterpart, Jeff Schemmel, as to the extent of the fire, a source at SDSU said.

Though the Rose Bowl itself is not threatened at the moment nor expected to be, the air quality in Pasadena is.

“At this point, it’s the air quality,” Pasadena Fire Department public information officer Lisa Derderian said. “The Rose Bowl is not threatened. Of course this fire kind of has a personality of its own. It’s doubled in fire over night. But I can assure you the Rose Bowl won’t be affected.”

Still one day away from a probable decision, UCLA is in the midst of exploring its options.

There are open dates for both teams in early December, and the relative distance of the two schools – neither team would have to fly to play the other – provides a bit of flexibility.

However, any drastic decision is not expected until at least Wednesday.

It’s not like the Aztecs haven’t dealt with this before: In 2007, wildfires in San Diego caused SDSU’s Oct.27 matchup with BYU to be rescheduled to Dec. 1.

“Just throwing out a date, Wednesday we hope to have a definite answer,” Derderian said. “We’re telling businesses, a lot of it has to do with people with existing medical conditions. Asthma, heart, lung disease.

“The problem is we have no wind. That’s good for firefighting, but bad for not blowing the air out.”

The Bruins have already been affected by the situation, having moved their planned final scrimmage from the Rose Bowl back to the on-campus practice fields last Friday.

Any more changes to the schedule would be devastating for a program that is eager to begin the 2009 campaign in the hopes of erasing the memories of a 4-8 record in 2008.

“You work the whole season, the whole year, for 12 shots, and there’s nothing like opening day,” UCLA head coach Rick Neuheisel said. “This is something they’ve been ready for. To prolong it would be hard.”

While those throughout the program constantly mentioned the need for safety and sent well-wishes to those most affected by the fire, the players would take the news of a delay or change of venue very hard.

“We’d be pretty fierce if we didn’t get to play Saturday,” Bruins freshman offensive guard Stanley Hasiak said. “We wouldn’t have it. We’d be (ticked), practicing all summer, real hard, getting ready for a team we know nothing about. Everybody would be pretty much heated. We’d be waiting for the next game, definitely.”